Football governing body FIFA has cleared two Nigerian Super
Falcons players, China-based Stella Mbachu and her Denmark-based
counterpart, Chichi Igbo, of doping offences in the on-going fifth
edition of the Women's World Cup in China.
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The duo were among the first set of players picked for tests
shortly after the commencement of the tourney. Mbachu was voted
Woman of the Match in Nigeria's 1-1 tie against Sweden on Tuesday
at the Chengdu Stadium.
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All unannounced tests conducted by FIFA's doping control doctors at
the training camps ahead of the tourney proved negative.
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So far, a total of 24 urine samples from the randomly selected
teams of defending champions - Germany, New Zealand, Norway,
Nigeria and Sweden - have been analyzed at the WADA-certified
laboratory in Beijing.
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This was announced at a joint FIFA/WADA media briefing with Prof.
Jiri Dvorak, FIFA's chief medical officer, and WADA's Director
General, David Howman, prior to the match between England and
Japan, which ended 2-2 at the Shanghai Hongkou Stadium.
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"The number of pre-competition tests for the FIFA Women's World Cup
was determined using international standards. Furthermore, FIFA
will continue to base its anti-doping strategy not only on testing,
but also on comprehensive educational and prevention initiatives,"
said Dvorak.
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With regard to blood testing, the FIFA chief medical officer said
"we will not conduct blood tests as there are no further results
that would provide us with additional indications. To do so, we
would need to collect comparable blueprint data from all of the
players over a certain period of time."
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Afterward, WADA's Howman said, "Together with FIFA, we are now
working on developing a so-called athletic passport to be able to
collect this personal hormone profile and other blood parameters to
enhance testing and get really valuable information for detecting
modifications through doping."
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"I would also like to thank FIFA for this opportunity to join them
here at a major sports event in China in the build-up to the
Olympic Games next year, which is very important for our planning.
We have an excellent co-operation in developing a true partnership
with FIFA and working hand-in-hand in the fight against doping," he
said.
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Howman is currently in China at FIFA's invitation in order to
observe the anti-doping procedures during the flagship women's
football competition, which kicked off in Shanghai on Sept. 10 to
end after 32 matches on Sept. 30.
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Throughout the 2007 Cup, urine samples from two players per team
would be tested after each match, with all samples evaluated at the
WADA-certified laboratory in Beijing.
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In 1970, FIFA became one of the sports federations to introduce
doping control tests. Many of the research activities conducted by
the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Center, a body founded in
1994, are aimed at gaining more knowledge of doping substances and
methods, improving methods of detection and working on the list of
prohibited substances.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2007)